But here’s the twist: The garage in the county’s sights, Joe’s Osborne Street Garage, has already teamed with several property owners to sue the county to invalidate the law, arguing it violates property owners’ constitutional rights.

The law, which does not cover tows ordered by police agencies, was sponsored by Latham Legislator Timothy Nichols in 2007 after residents of several apartment complexes complained of having their cars towed for seemingly minor or non-existent infractions, such as having a small section of their tires on the grass or the painted lines separating parking spaces.

Among other things, the law requires that a tow company have a signed agreement with the owner of a private parking lot before towing there, and that the owner — or his or her designated representative — be present for the tow.

Joe’s Osborne Street Garage is accused of violating both those provisions on Feb. 22 when it allegedly towed a car from behind 19 Homestead Ave. in the city’s Melrose neighborhood at the request of a tenant and without the property manager’s knowledge. According to the petition, the car belonged to the sister of an upstairs tenant in the two-family home. The county also alleges the garage violated the law by charging too much — $135 instead of the $100 set in city code — for the tow.

The garage’s lawyer, Lew Oliver, contends the county is retaliating against Joe’s for filing the lawsuit. The county argues Joe’s should have followed the law. In February, a month after the lawsuit was filed, the Times Union reported the law had never been enforced.

As I reported earlier this year, here’s another little known fact about having your car towed in the city of Albany: If you show up, the tow company has to let you take it — for little or no charge.

Jordan Carleo-Evangelist

13 Responses

It’s about time, and I applaud the County for its efforts. This man has been preying on residents students, visitors, and anyone who crosses his path. He has made a living from towing cars from the front of his abandoned and poorly signed property at the end of a local street and charging outrageous fees. This is clearly a trap site and even the Albany City police know about it but have no recourse (they say good luck with that guy-he’s a crook!). We paid the fine at 2am without complaint, called the next day to politely ask for some jsutification, only to be screamed at over the phone and told “so sue me; I couldn’t care less. You’ll pay more to win your complaint and I’ve still got my money”. I hope this signals the end of this rein of terror.

that’s a dumb law. Most apartments are not complexes and landlords who don’t live in Albany dont typically have a representative and would not have a contract with a towing company. That places an undue burden on owners and renters. If you rent and someone is blocking your driveway you should be able to have them towed w/out having to jump through hoops.

This guy is the worst. I’m fine not receiving sparkling customer service out of a towing company, but I expect common decency. Since I imagine almost all of his business has been done in violation of this law, I can only hope it’s held up and it drives him out of business. Is there any recourse for people who have been towed in violation of this law? I can’t imagine he got a Key Bank representative to be present between 10 and 1030pm for my tow. I don’t even care about the money, I’d happily donate it just to know this guy doesn’t have it.

Many a visitor to Albany have had these guys as their lasting memory of our “business friendly” town.
Add that to our lack of easy public parking, no signs pointing to public lots and way overpriced meter parking and overtime tickets. There is virtually no free public parking downtown unlike Schenectady and Troy.I’ve personally witnessed their brutal treatment of cars. Horror stories about this garage are legion and people need to tell their stories now and stop being intimidated. Taking someone’s car, often their pride and joy, is a very upsetting thing to do to anybody. That’s why so many people will not do business in our town unless absolutely necessary and I believe various groups that have had meetings and conventions downtown haven’t been back to our “business friendly” city
In the late 90’s I was towed from the blighted Adirondack Trailways property where, since it hadn’t been used in decades, I naively thought would be OK to park. I was downtown scouting locations for the Bayou Cafe. My employee was towed for too many parking tickets and when he picked up his car he was courteously given his key. The only problem is that they are not a valet service, the car was locked and the key was from his console ! Someone had taken the time to collect all the loose change from the floor of his admittedly filthy car. I should have taken that as an omen. If you believe there’s no financial benefit to the owners of these decrepit buildings and desolate lots from towing I ask you why else would they cause such misery to befall visitors to our fair city.
Keep in mind tow truck operators, most of whom are honorable hardworking, and necessary businesses, have their own lobbying and advocacy group which does their do their bidding to our elected officials. Tim Nichols is a hero to me and all those who have been on the receiving end of this insanity.
I’M SURE ALBANY HAS LOST MILLIONS IN BUSINESS BECAUSE OF THESE VULTURES AND IT’S GONE ON TOO DAMN LONG!!

The garage owner is getting what he deserves. My car was towed by this garage from Village one aparments in 2005 for “parking on a lawn”. Apparently the front tire was touching the grass. I went to court with more than a dozen pictures to prove there was no lawn, but unfortunately the judge found the picture taken by the garage more convincing. I felt violated and harassed and the justice system did nothing to help. Now I feel vindicated.

Had an incident with this guy a few years ago, had a boot put on the vehicle even though the ticket to park in the lot was clearly displayed on the dashboard. After calling and explaining this, this person was not having any of it and proceeded trying to extort us of money even though we were legally parked. This all couldn’t be happening to a nicer guy.

Albany Resident – The landlord doesn’t need to be there if the tow is ordered by the police. APD would order a tow of a blocked driveway, and I have found APD to respond quickly to these sorts of requests.

Property owners are liable for people going through their lot so you need insurance in case someone gets hurt. People that park illegally are not your nicest people in the first place. They litter peoples lots use them for free parking and sue them when they trip and fall on the garbage the rest of the city leaves on their property that is so expensive to keep up in the first place especially since albany raised all the property tax. People shouldnt have to get the ok by someone else on what to do on their own property. APD can only tow away cars that are blocking a driveway if they are parked on the street no when someone pulls all the way into private parking lots off the city street to block someone in. People have jobs to go to just like the people that get towed so why is it ok for them to do it to us but no ok to have them removed from the property so they can get out. This is unjust this company has been open 34 years and now all of a sudden they are trying to put them out of business. The tow fee in the city of albany is $100 and an additional $25 for dolly wheels to lift all four wheels off the ground. They are highly regulated enough as it is…the price of gas and everything else goes up everyday while they’re tow rates have been the same since 2005.

I own several properties in the city of Albany and charge my tenants extra money for off street parking and guarantee them a spot. However parking violaters/trespssrs are constantly parking on my property I pay taxes on without my permission Joes Osborne St Garage guarantees my tenants a spot I have a contract and a permit system if theres someone parked in my lot without a permit they are removed and my tenants are happy
I pay an outrageous amount of taxes in the city of albany and this is my property I should be able to do what I want on my property I shouldnt have to show up to the scene at 2-3-4am everytime a car needsfa to be towed it is a civil matter if you feel your var was improperly towed you fight it in small claims court my lots are clearly posted and again this is my property no one told you to park your car there if you are mad anyone you should be mad at yourself the county and the city need to stay out of private matters and focus on the bigger problems

Not only do they litter on property people also sell drugs and sex,hide stolen cars and curse you out and threaten you when you ask them to leave your property. So letting the public park anywhere they wish is undermining public safety to the property owners and the people they rent to. Towing is no easy task either there is tons of overhead and these people work just as hard or harder than anyone else for their money. And to say you need a property owner or representative to tow a car is absurd many property owners live far away and can not come out in the middle of the night constantly to tow cars away which is a problem that we are already handling. Especially if there is a signed contract and signs posted. The property owner and tow company shouldnt be held accountable for others ignorance. As far as parking on someones lawn or driveway there should be no need for a sign or contract otherwise every house in the city should just post a sign up in front of their lawn to let people know what they already should which is not to park on someones driveway or lawn that you dont know….its only common sense people.

Osborne St Garage is not the problem, parking violators are the problem. Osborne’s drivers are only doing the job that they are hired for. They tow at the request of a property owner or APD. Simple solution to not being towed is don’t park illegally. In regards to the price to get your car back, if the price wasn’t so high, it wouldn’t be an effective deterrent. I’ve never been towed because I don’t park where I’m not supposed to.

You’ve missed the point….legal towing when properly signed and accounted for is perfectly acceptable. Unacceptable is the bullying by a greedy, unetheical business owner who preys on people using loopholes and his “I got you first” practice to unfairly fine residents and visitors. Stand up for common sense yes, but ‘google’ this man and see how he has impacted so many people. Ask for courtesy from each other and live together peacefully. Downtown is cramped and we do certainly need protection for private property owners who try to keep standards high for residents. But please don’t let people like this ruin your hard work and hard earned money. If this is the only way to reign in his actions, I say go for it. Al Capone was taken down by an Accountant.